Retirement living’s ‘cream of the crop’

Created date

January 12th, 2017

Stu Craig and Dorothy Kollinger, who live at Ann’s Choice, show off one of the remote-controlled drones that Stu flies with the campus Silent Flyers group.

Stu Craig and Dorothy Kollinger moved to Ann’s Choice from Montgomeryville, Pa., for so many good reasons. For one thing, moving to Erickson Living’s retirement community in Bucks County, Pa., meant they could maintain ties with their doctors as well as their former neighbors.

For another, Stu worked on the equipment for his sound business in the couple’s finished lower level. It was handy, but going up and down those stairs did nothing to alleviate his back issues. Ann’s Choice’s one-level living and an elevator convenient to the couple’s fifth-floor apartment home have Stu smiling again.

The community’s full-time security team and on-site rehabilitation and continuing care neighborhood give the couple’s far-flung children peace of mind should Stu or Dorothy have a health emergency or need additional care.

Stu’s daughter lives in Japan, and Dorothy’s children are in Harrisburg, Pa., and Georgia.

A retired speech pathologist who’d worked part time at the rehabilitation and continuing care neighborhood,, Dorothy knew the wisdom of living at Ann’s Choice. After researching other communities, so did Stu.

“The cost, facilities, amenities, activities—here you have everything,” he says. “Ann’s Choice is the cream of the crop.”

Shedding ‘stuff’

After they’d winnowed their belongings and settled into their two-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath home at Ann’s Choice, they realized they didn’t need much of what they’d accumulated: “Those things were sitting there doing nothing, and we were paying high taxes on a larger house,” says Stu.

The couple loves their lifestyle so much that they’ve become campus ambassadors, mingling with and answering questions from people attending sales luncheons at Ann’s Choice. They’ve also taken luncheon guests on tours of their lovely Hastings-style apartment (turn to page 10 to see a blueprint of the Hastings floor plan).

Dorothy always points out the stackable washer and dryer hidden behind folding doors in their kitchen, which is spacious enough for a breakfast table.

Stu loves the large walk-in shower. And they both revel in the light that pours into their great room from its generous-sized bay window.

Their second bedroom is their computer room. Stu retreats there; Dorothy prefers the great room. “We each have our private space,” she says.

A former pilot, Stu now flies remote-controlled drones with the campus Silent Flyers group. He’s also joined the amateur radio club.

Dorothy teaches iPad help sessions in the Apple Computer group. And she walks everywhere on Ann’s Choice’s beautiful 103-acre campus.

“Ann’s Choice has everything we want and everything we need,” she says.

“And you only have to do the things you want to do,” says Stu. What he and Dorothy are doing is spending more time together.